Pour Some Sugar On Me
by heavyheartsandhope
Summary: TK and Kari have never baked a cake before in their twenty years of living. Why not give it shot now? Takari


"We'll do that!" Kari Kamiya raised her hand, volunteering herself and her boyfriend.

TK Takaishi's eyes widened at this prospect. "We will?" he questioned.

The rest of the DigiDestined eyed the two younger ones with the same questioning look TK had. Sora spoke up for the group, saying what everyone else was thinking, "Have you ever baked a cake before?"

Kari's enthusiastic face fell just like her hand did. "Well… no, not really," she faltered, feeling embarrassed for volunteering to do something she had never even tried. "But how hard can it be? Right, TK?"

The uneasy look remained on the blonde's face as he turned towards her. His girlfriend's eyes were filled with a childlike wonder at the idea of baking, something the two had never tried. They had moved into an apartment together about a month before this meeting, and neither of them had done any sort of cooking beyond salad preparation and heating up pre-made chicken nuggets since then. TK wasn't even sure Kari knew how to bake anything, recalling the horror stories he had heard about her mother's own cooking style.

But looking at the hopeful expression on Kari's face, he couldn't turn her down. She seemed excited and determined to bake this cake for their next Digital World party, and once Kari put her mind to something, there was no stopping her. Besides, he had the Crest of Hope; how could he crush hers?

TK sighed, giving the group a smile and a small shrug. "It's just a cake. There's a ton of recipes online. I'm sure we'll find one simple enough for us to try."

Kari let out an excited squeal, wrapping her arms around TK's shoulders. She was excited about this, for some odd reason, but he didn't question it. The older DigiDestined looked at TK with fake smiles, knowing that this could be a disaster. TK locked eyes with his older brother Matt, and mouthed, "Bring a spare."

* * *

A loud slam of the front door startled TK out of his slumber. He threw his hand on the coffee table, catching himself before he could slam onto the floor.

"Get up, sleepyhead! We have a cake to make!" Kari called from the kitchen, accompanied by the crinkle of plastic bags and thuds of cartons.

TK groaned, remembering that today was the day before their next Digital World get-together. He was hoping she would have forgotten and he would just have to run out and get a premade cake. But Kari had been determined to bake. She began looking up recipes the moment they got back from their last meeting. He was just grateful her took her down from an elaborate fruity cake that would have taken them years to master to a simple vanilla cake.

As he made his way into the kitchen, TK noticed the ingredients scattered all over their small countertop. There were only seven things they needed to make the cake, but Kari had also gotten a variety of measuring cups and a large baking pan. She was setting up each ingredient in the order the recipe called for. The boy laughed at how precise she was being at a simple cake as he washed his hands.

"Okay, where do we start?" he asked, drying off his hands. He looked over Kari's shoulder to the printed-off recipe in her hands.

"Preheat the oven to 350 degrees," Kari read, reaching over for the oven nob. Setting the oven to the correct temperature, she turned around to TK with a large grin. "Step one: done. And they said this would be hard."

TK laughed at her enthusiasm. "We haven't even started," he reminded her, opening the oven to make sure they weren't storing any pans or other cooking material in there. "What's next?"

Kari's read over the next step with a confused look on her face. "Coat a nine-by-nine pan with flour?" She reached over for the pan she bought, turning it every which way to get a good look at it. "What does nine-by-nine mean? Is this a nine-by-nine pan?"

TK scrunched up his face, taking the pan from Kari. "It means the pan is nine inches wide by nine inches long." He examined the pan, too, looking concerned. "I'm not sure this is nine inches, but it is a square. A couple inches off can't hurt."

Kari's face returned back to its previous excited look. "Right!" she agreed, taking the pan from TK and setting it down on the counter. She reached over for the flour and tore it open, sending some of the flour onto the countertop. "Oops," she said, wiping the flour onto the counter over to their sink, leaving it there to be cleaned later.

TK sat back and watched Kari take a measuring up and pour three half-cups of flour into the pan. He furrowed his eyebrows, looking down into the pan. "Kari, I don't think that's right."

Kari pouted as she looked up at her boyfriend. "But it calls for a cup and a half of flour," she pouted, grabbing the recipe and pointing to the list of ingredients.

TK read over the directions where they were in the process. The recipe did say to flour the pan, but the next step called for flour as well. "I think the cup and a half is meant for the bowl," he explained, picking up the flour-drenched pan. "This is more than a coat."

Taking TK's word, Kari quickly ducked down to the bottom cupboard and grabbed a plastic mixing bowl. She set it on the counter and took the pan from TK, pouring the flour from the pan into the bowl. Examining the coat of flour in the pan, she took a pinch of flour from the bag and sprinkled it into the bowl. "To make up for what was left in the pan," she explained, clapping her hands free of the excess.

TK sighed, letting her dirty their kitchen floor with flour. His eyes returned to the next step of the recipe. "Add one and three quarters teaspoons of baking soda."

Kari frantically searched their countertop for the new keyring of measuring cups she had bought. Finding the bag, she grabbed the set of smaller ones with a confused look on her face. "These don't say teaspoon on them. They just have two Ts," she said, pulling two types of smaller measuring cups off. One of the cups had an uppercase T and the other a lowercase T. She looked up at TK. "Which is bigger: a teaspoon or a tablespoon?"

TK's eyes widened at the question, never having to answer that before. He wasn't one hundred percent positive which was which, but it couldn't be hard. "Uhh…" he mumbled, trying to think of a decent explanation. "I'm not sure, actually, but I want to say a tablespoon is bigger than a teaspoon."

Kari bite her lower lip in thought, looking back at the measuring cups. She had no clue, but she had to take TK's word for it. "It must be," she smiled, as she put the bigger cup back in the bag. "A table is a lot bigger than a teacup, so the teaspoon must be the larger one."

TK couldn't argue with her logic, as he had no better explanation. He watched as she pulled the 1/4th teaspoon from the bag. He reached over her for the container of baking powder, opening up the plastic lid and ripping off the paper top before handing it over to her. Kari thanked him as she carefully measured out the correct amount of baking powder into the flour.

With that step done, TK read the next step. "In a separate bowl, blend together the sugar and the butter."

Kari's smile widened as she got another bowl from the bottom cupboard. "I finally get to use the mixer my mother gave me," she said, setting the bowl on the counter before going back to the cupboard.

TK was confused on what she meant by a mixer. When Kari pulled out a white block with an electrically cord attached, he was even more confused. How was a block going to mix up their sugar and butter blend?

As Kari went looking through their drawers for something, he took it upon himself to speed up the baking process and measure out the sugar and butter into the bowl Kari set out. TK grabbed the one cup measuring cup and opened up the sugar bag, not spilling any on the counter as Kari had done with the flour. He carefully measured out one cup, spread the excess back into the bag, and poured the sugar in the new bowl. He noticed Kari had gotten sticks of butter, making the measuring easy. TK tore open the box and took out one stick, noting the measurement on the side of the paper. "One stick is a half of a cup," he noted, reading over the measurement the recipe called for. He opened the butter paper and let the content fall into the sugar bowl, not getting any butter on him or the counter. He felt proud of his baking accomplishment and threw away the paper as Kari let out a successful squeal.

TK turned around to watch Kari insert two whisks into the mixing brick, completely the mixer. He remembered how those worked now, recalling watching his mother bake for his birthday when he was younger. Kari smiled at TK to thank him for preparing this part of the recipe. Plugging in the mixer, she put the whisks into the bowl before turning the mixer as high as it could go.

The two younger DigiDestined let out a loud scream as butter and sugar went flying all over their kitchen. Kari let go of the mixer in the bowl, allowing both to tip over onto the counter. TK rushed over to unplug the mixer from the outlet. Once the mixer stopped, the only sound heard was the couple's heavy breathing.

Kari looked up at TK with an apologetic look. "Sorry about that," she apologized, seeing an exasperated look on TK's face.

TK shook the look from his face, seeing how sorry Kari looked. She could tell that this project was causing some distress for her boyfriend, but TK didn't want her to focus on that. This was something Kari really wanted to do, so he had to let her do it.

"That's okay," TK assured her as he slid the speed on the mixer from the highest setting to off. He set the mixer up out of the bowl and put some more sugar in to make up for what they had lost. Once everything was reset, he grabbed Kari's hand and made her grip the handle of the mixer. "Let's just start at a lower setting this time," he smiled at her.

Kari smiled back, thankful to have such an understanding boyfriend. She knew that any of the other DigiDestined would have given up on her by now, especially with a whole kitchen to clean. She took the mixer from TK and carefully turned the mixer to a low setting, twisting the bowl to get every last piece blended together.

TK grabbed the recipe off of the counter, shaking off some of the flying sugar butter from it. Reading over the next ingredient, TK opened up the carton and took out two eggs. "Okay, so we have to put them in one by one."

Kari stopped the mixer and grabbed one egg from TK's hand. "Got it!" she exclaimed, tapping the side of the egg on the bowl a bit too forcefully. The egg shattered, spilling the contents down the side of the bowl. Throwing the shell into the skin, she quickly tried to clean up the spilled egg with her hand.

TK tore a paper towel of the roll and handed it to Kari. "Use this," he said as he reached for another egg. "You've got to be a bit gentler." He took the bowl so she could finish cleaning up and tapped the egg on the side, breaking the shell and separating the halves to let the contents drain into the bowl. He held the bowl out to Kari in exchange for the dirty towel. "I'll let you do the next one," he smiled at her.

Kari let out a long sigh, taking the bowl back and mixing in the one egg. "How did you know that?" she asked.

"I've cracked an egg or two for breakfast before," TK explained. "It's one of the few cooking things I can do."

Kari looked down at the mixing bowl and noted that the first egg was blended in thoroughly. She took the second egg from TK's hand and cracked it how TK told her. The egg broke open and spilled into the bowl. Kari smiled, impressed with herself, and began to mix the batter without another word.

TK laughed at how Kari handled herself upon her egg accomplishment. "It's the little things, huh?" he said, reaching for the bottle of vanilla extract. The recipe called for two teaspoons. He pours out the correct amount into the bowl and Kari continued to stir until the batter looked combined.

Kari stopped the mixer and leaned over towards her boyfriend to get a look at the recipe. "Okay, now what?"

"Combined the dry mixture into the wet batter," TK read. He looked up from the paper, eyeing the flour mixture. "I guess that means we mix in the flour."

"Got it!" Kari exclaimed, quickly reaching for the dry bowl and dumping the whole contents into the other bowl. The two couldn't see the wet batter anymore. Kari lifted the mixer over the batter and began mixing the two by hand first, not turning on the blender until the wet mixture could be seen. She smiled over at TK. "Learned a thing or two from the sugar butter incident."

TK couldn't help but laugh as Kari turned on the mixture again. Thankfully, there was no fly-away batter like the first mixing attempt. He gave the recipe a look-over for the final ingredient. He needed a half of a cup of milk. Taking it upon himself to finish off the batter, he measured out the milk and poured it into the mixing batter. He watched as the batter quickly turned into the cake batter he remembered his mother making. He was surprised. They actually made decent looking cake batter on the first try, despite some mishaps.

Kari stopped the mixer and withdrew the whisks from the batter. She shook them off before setting them aside. "We can eat the batter on there while we're waiting," she explained, eager to start eating.

TK grabbed the floured pan from the other side of the counter and place it in front of Kari. He held the pan steady while Kari tipped the bowl over it, distributing the batter evenly. TK took a spatula from their drawer of kitchen items they didn't use and scraped the remaining batter off of the side of the bowl and into the pan.

Kari smiled, looking at their unbaked creation. "Look at it, TK! It looks like a real cake!"

"Well, not yet," TK laughed, grabbing a towel from another drawer. "We've got to bake it first."

Kari nodded before grabbing the sides of the pan. She lifted it up and dropped it on the table a few times, startling TK.

"What are you doing that for?" TK asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"I don't know," Kari admitted as she placed the pan into TK's towel-covered hands. "I just saw it on a baking show once."

TK shrugged. It couldn't have hurt the cake. He nodded towards the oven for Kari to open, and then he popped the cake into it.

Kari squealed as she reached for the instructions. The gleam in her eyes dulled as she read the recipe. "Thirty to forty minutes? That's a long time," she complained, sliding down the side of their cupboard to the floor. "Not to mention that such a large gap in time. Do we have to check it every minute between those two times? This is so weird." She threw her face onto her knees, burying her head in her arms wrapped around her.

TK let out a small laugh as he set the timer for 35 minutes. He figured it would be a good middle ground for the recipe. He stepped over his exhausted girlfriend, took the whisks off of the counter, and put them in the bowl. He sat down on the floor next to Kari and tapped her arm.

Kari looked up and saw TK holding one of the whisks out to her. She smiled back at him, taking her whisk. TK took his out of the bowl, scooping up some remaining batter from the sides. The two made eye contact, smirked, and clicked their whisks together in a victory celebration over their battle with cake.

* * *

Kari practically ran down the hill towards the other DigiDestined. She was so excited to prove their doubts about her and TK's baking skills wrong. The cake in her hands was proof that they could do it.

TK couldn't keep up with her anymore and decided to leisurely follow from behind, watching her call out to the rest of their friends. He could see the fake look of excited when they noticed her cake dish. He had to smile at that. For what it was worth, he was proud of both of them for making a decent looking cake on the first try, despite the hours of clean up afterward. He even found some of the sugar butter on the wall the next morning. But it was worth it to see the proud look on her face. She really had been determined to make this cake, for reasons still unknown to TK. He really didn't care in that moment. He'll question it later.

TK finally caught up with Kari and the group as she set their cake down with the rest of the food. "I'm so excited for you guys to try this!" she exclaimed, taking off the cover. "We spent so long decorating it!"

Matt looked over at TK questioningly, unable to imagine his little brother spending a long time with a cake and icing. TK interrupted Kari's point. "Kari actually did most of the work. I was just a visual consultant."

Kari waved TK off. "More like visual eater. He couldn't stop eating the icing."

The group chuckled at the image. TK shrugged. "Hey, it would good icing."

Kari lifted up the finished cake for the DigiDestined to see. It wasn't very detailed, because they weren't that good with food decorating just yet, but it looked visually appealing. The cake was covered in white frosting, topped with squares of sprinkles in each color of their crests. The group seemed pretty pleased by the outcome.

"It actually looks pretty good," Tai commented, surprised at the quality of his sister's first baking attempt.

"And it tastes even better!" Kari replied, ignoring the backhandedness of Tai's comment. She took the cutting knife from the cake container and started cutting the cake into small squares for everyone. She was so excited that no one told her they hadn't even started on the actual food yet. They just let her skip to dessert. She quickly distributed their cake to everyone, making sure everyone had a piece before she took her own.

"Go on! How is it?" Kari asked, watching everyone take their first bite.

TK held his breath. He hoped their cake was good, but since it was their first time baking, he knew a lot could go wrong. The cake could be too dense. They could have not added enough of an ingredient.

But the DigiDestined looked pleasantly surprised at the results. A few began nodding at their pieces. The breath that TK held escaped as he took his bite.

It was a lot better than he had expected.

Kari's eyes lit up. "Is it good? Did we do a good job?" she asked, taking her first bite, too. She smiled into her bite. "Scratch that. I know we did good! It tastes so yummy. Right TK?"

TK smiled at his happy girlfriend, proud of the work they did. "Of course!" he responded.

Matt inched his way over to his brother, leaning down to his ear. "What do you want me to do about the backup cake?"

TK's eyes shot open. He waved his hand abruptly away. "Get it out of here. Make sure she never sees it," he whispered back. Matt gave him a thumbs up before covertly moving over to where the spare cake was.

TK walked over to Kari, sitting down next to her. "We did a good job," he complimented. "Though I still don't understand why this was such a big deal to you."

Kari took another bite as she watched the rest of the DigiDestined intermingle with each other. "I just wanted to show we could help," she shrugged, knowing that she wasn't very good with words. "They were always taking care of us here. I thought maybe we could take care of their cake needs."

TK had to laugh at her reasoning. She seemed to have forgotten how their crests saved the Digital world once or twice, but he decided to not bring that up and let her have her moment with her cake. He kissed her cheek and took another bite of his cake. "We did make a damn good cake," he noted.

Kari nodded in agreement. "It's not as bad as I thought it would be," she said, taking the last bite of hers. "Although if this didn't work out, I was just going to stop for a store-bought one."

TK stared at her blankly, remember his idea from the beginning. That would have made their lives the night previous so much simpler if she had said that from the beginning.

But he didn't say any of that. Instead, he swiped a finger in his leftover icing and smeared it on her nose, getting payback for startling him out of his nap to make their stupid cake.


End file.
